


The Endless Cycle That Is Benny Lafitte's Life – Afterlife

by sandean_cas



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Angel Wings, Angst, Benny Lafitte & Dean Winchester Friendship, Benny Lafitte Ships Castiel/Dean Winchester, Benny Lafitte Takes Care of Dean Winchester, Castiel Does Not Get The References (Supernatural), Castiel Does What Castiel Wants (Supernatural), Castiel Heals Dean Winchester, Castiel Leaves (Supernatural), Castiel Loves Dean Winchester, Castiel Saves Dean Winchester, Castiel and Dean Winchester Have a Profound Bond, Castiel and Dean Winchester Need to Use Their Words, Castiel in Purgatory (Supernatural), Castiel in the Men of Letters Bunker (Supernatural), Castiel's Angelic Grace (Supernatural), Castiel/Dean Winchester in Purgatory, Dean Winchester Deserves Nice Things, Dean Winchester Deserves to be Happy, Dean Winchester Loves Castiel, Dean Winchester Prays to Castiel, Dean Winchester Says the Wrong Thing, Dean Winchester in Purgatory, Episode: s15e08 Our Father Who Aren't In Heaven, Feels, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, Hopeful Ending, Hurt Dean Winchester, Hurt/Comfort, I Will Go Down With This Ship, Jealous Castiel (Supernatural), Leviathan Blossom, Leviathans, M/M, Portals, Post-Episode: s15e08 Our Father Who Aren't in Heaven, Post-Purgatory (Supernatural), Post-Purgatory Dean Winchester, Protective Benny Lafitte, Protective Castiel (Supernatural), Protective Dean Winchester, Purgatory, Quote: I'm the one who gripped you tight and raised you from perdition. (Supernatural), Season/Series 15, Season/Series 15 Spoilers, Vampire Benny Lafitte
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-22
Updated: 2019-12-22
Packaged: 2021-02-26 00:14:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,038
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21904318
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sandean_cas/pseuds/sandean_cas
Summary: He watched helplessly as his body hit the dirt, his wings etched into the mud… the final touch. A stroke of death, that, in his eyes, could never be revoked. Dean doesn’t regret many things in life. He can’t afford to. But he always regretted letting Sam drag him back. It’s stupid to go in now, he knows it. He rips Cass’ arms back, trying to wrench him away from the portal… to get him to wait. Stay.“Twelve hours is nothing.” He hisses, holding onto Cass with all his might.“That’s why we have to act quickly. Before it closes.”“And if it closes with us in it… then what?” he demands, “We find the blossom and play ring around the roses for the rest of the time?”“When a human enters Purgatory, a portal opens.”“Yea. A human portal. For me. We still don’t know if it works for you.” he yells, “We can’t risk it. You stay here and wait for Sam. He’ll… know how to keep the portal open.”Cass shoves him back. “We don’t have time for this. You can stay here.” He says mirroring Dean’s words from earlier. The portal flashes as Cass steps through. Dean curses. Common sense grabs him by the neck and rattles him around. Dean ignores it. Sam wouldn’t want him to go. But Sam isn’t here this time.
Relationships: Benny Lafitte & Dean Winchester, Castiel/Dean Winchester
Comments: 2
Kudos: 134





	The Endless Cycle That Is Benny Lafitte's Life – Afterlife

Dean watches in horror as Castiel looks him straight in the eye and marches towards the portal. The determination on his face reminds Dean of the time when he walked through another portal… to kill Lucifer. He remembers Castiel’s death vividly. The colour of his dying grace, the shock and pain that crossed his face. He remembers the profound relief of seeing his friend make it back crumble to dust. He watched helplessly as his body hit the dirt, his wings etched into the mud… the final touch. A stroke of death, that, in his eyes, could never be revoked.

Dean doesn’t regret many things in life. He can’t afford to. But he always regretted letting Sam drag him back. It’s stupid to go in now, he knows it. He rips Cass’ arms back, trying to wrench him away from the portal… to get him to wait. _Stay._

“Twelve hours is nothing.” He hisses, holding onto Cass with all his might.

“That’s why we have to act quickly. Before the portal closes.”

“And if it closes with us in it… then what?” he demands, “We find the blossom and play ring around the roses for the rest of the time?”

“When a human enters Purgatory, a portal opens as the land rejects them.”

“Yea. A human portal. For me. We still don’t know if it works for you.” he yells, “We can’t risk it. You stay here and wait for Sam. He’ll… know how to keep the portal open.”

“And you?” Cass demands. “Last time you needed the help of a vampire to even find the portal.”

“Benny’s there.” He says defensively.

Cass’ face twists in distaste. He never liked Benny, Dean knows as much. “Oh and you think he would help you?”

“He’s never let me down.”

Killing Benny. Another regret; he’d do it all over again for Sam though.

Opening his mouth or a rebuttal, Cass shoves him back. “We don’t have time for this. You can stay here.” He says mirroring Dean’s words from earlier.

The portal flashes as Cass steps through. Dean curses. He knows how fast Cass can move when he’s motivated. And there isn’t enough time to scour Purgatory for him a second time… even _if_ Sam can keep the portal open that long. No, Dean’s best shot at bringing Cass back in one piece is by going through now, before Cass has a chance to walk too far.

Common sense grabs him by the neck and rattles him around. Dean ignores it. Sam wouldn’t want him to go. But Sam isn’t here this time.

He scribbles a quick note explaining the situation and the time constraints, sticks it to the table and shoots Sam a text for good measure. Then, Dean walks through the portal.

The bunkers clean air and good lighting instantly vanish and are replaced by the smell of gore and death. The lighting of course, is abysmal, but thankfully he can still make out the trench-coated figure ambling along. He raises a brow, twirling the blade he brought back from Purgatory all those years ago… how did Cass manage to get into a fight so soon.

The tell-tale flashes of smiting grows closer and closer. Dean is close enough to make out Cass’ attackers. Leviathan. Right. Cass is a beacon to them. He lops one head off and slams the other into a tree. The least it can do for them is point them in the right direction, Dean thinks.

…

There isn’t much to do in Purgatory. Just like there isn’t much to do on Earth. Dean made it seem like this great utopia worth the trouble it put him through… but Benny never got it. He hadn’t while he was alive and it certainly hadn’t become any clearer the second time around. The technology was a bitch to learn and the humans were even more likely to kill themselves with all their fancy new bombs.

There ain’t nothin’ back there that he can’t find in here.

Death and gore till the day ends. And Purgatory ain’t got no days.

Benny grips his blade a little tighter at the first signs of a scuffle. By the sounds of it, it’s Leviathan. He knows better than to seek out a fight with those nasty black globs. He starts moving away slowly till he hears the impossible.

“Naw. The stupidity I see in front of me ain’t possible.”

Dean glances up from the Leviathan corpse and Castiel scowls instantly at the sound of his voice. Dean catches himself first and pulls him into a tight hug. Like the Earth or not, he’d missed Dean Winchester. The man is a natural born warrior. “Benny! It’s good to see you man.”

“Good to see you too brother.” he says returning the embrace. Then he glances at Castiel who simpers in his presence, hiding it much less than the first time. “Hey, it’s my crazy aunt!” he says, if only to tick the angel off.

And boy if it doesn’t work like a charm.

Dean throws his head back. “It’s like pulling teeth.”

“How’re you two even here?” he wonders aloud, “Stand too close to exploding Dick again?”

“Long story short. God’s having a tantrum and we gotta trap him for all eternity, but to do that, we need a um – Leviathan blossom.”

Benny screws his lip up in distaste. “Never heard of a blossom before. But your best bet is in their nest.”

“Their nest?” Castiel asks with distaste. “I assume _you_ will take us there.”

“Bet your ass.”

“I’d rather not.” Then he turns to Dean. “We’re wasting time with this.”

…

“What have you done now?” Benny asks as they head to the Leviathan’s nest. The buggers claimed the very centre of Purgatory as their very own stomping ground. It’s rare that they leave at all… though, the smell of an angel is too tasty to resist. Dean’s precious angel would have to hang back if they want to have any hope at all of infiltrating quietly. Using the angel as a diversion would be nice too. The only problem is convincing Dean.

Castiel bristles at the attention. “Talking to you is pointless.”

Benny laughs, “Well, I’m just blushin’.” He _could_ leave it there. But from what Dean said, they got less than twelve hours to make it there and back. “But you’re avoidin’ my question. Last time I saw you and Dean, you two were inseparable. But that was only because he was carting your surley ass along wasnit? You didn’t want to be there with us. You left Dean, first chance you got without a word.”

He remembers how desperately Dean searched for the angel. Carving a path through the un-carvable and moving the unmovable to find any clue. That dedication… that passion… Benny hadn’t seen a thing like it since his lady. He’d been rooting for Dean and he was more than interested to meet the angel who could do so much wrong yet inspire such loyalty. To say he’d been disappointed is an understatement.

“I don’t have to explain myself.”

“Right. Right. He mocks. You were protecting Dean.

Now let me see if I got this right. You left him again and he _didn’t_ rip the world apart trying to find you and that hurt your pretty feelings. Now the two of you are stuck in your crap.”

“No.”

“Then why do you smell like shit?” he demands, “I’m just sayin’ humans have short lives. Dean’s got – what? Twenty? Thirty good years before _he’s_ the one who leaves? Are you really going to waste his time… leaving for no good reason ever twenty seconds?”

“I don’t –”

“You do.” He insists, “I’ve seen your type. You always say it’s for a good reason. Maybe you even tell yourself it’s for Dean… and maybe it works. But you hurt him. You always do and whatever you did last time was just too much. He gave up on you Castiel. The most loyal man I ever met gave up on you. Now what does that say?”

Castiel can’t form a word but Benny can see in his eyes that his words hit their mark. He can’t force the angel to fix it. He can’t even make Dean forgive him if he really had pulled on Dean’s last straw. But he knows, from the angel’s stricken expression, that he’ll try.

…

Dean finds himself racing out of Purgatory once again. This time, he makes sure that Cass is in front of him. No way is he being duped twice. Benny split off about a half a mile back, insisting that he doesn’t want to come back with them. He’s not letting Cass go too, that’s why he insisted that the angel be the one to hold onto the flower. It’s a ghastly looking thing; Dean doesn’t want to touch it anyway.

“The portal is closing Dean!” Cass calls.

The nick that’s more of a gaping wound on his leg protests as Dean picks up the pace. Damn it, he’s nearly ten yards behind Cass. Cass notices and skids to a halt, kicking up a dust storm. Dean chances a glance behind them at the hoard of Leviathan racing towards them and falling like meteors, out of the sky.

“Come on!” is Cass’ frantic call, then his eyes flit down to Dean’s leg, paling as the blood gushes out with every step. Dean knows he isn’t going to make it. Now Castiel knows it too.

He hooks his arm around Dean and forces them into a slow run. “Damn it Dean. My grace can’t …”

“I know.” Dean pants, “Cass get the flower through. I’ll be good. If I don’t make it I’ll just double back, find Benny and we’ll make it to the human portal.”

Cass squints at him in disbelief.

The both move a little faster as the portal flickers, shrinking rapidly with every second.

“God damn it Cass!” Dean roars, “Why don’t you just leave me?! You always do! What’s so different, huh?”

“Stop talking. You’re delirious from blood loss.” Cass grits out.

The angel has his own aches and pains no doubt, Dean can already see some unhealed wounds from their raid on camp Leviathan. Dragging his heavy ass all the way to that portal isn’t doing anyone any favours.

“Just … throw me away like you usually do, but – but you gotta know m’sorry buddy.” Dean slurs, feeling his legs begin to buckle.

“Alright.” Castiel bites out. “I’m sorry too Dean. I never wanted it to end this way.”

His heart stops and he whips around. Cass is bringing the flower back, he tries to reason, he doesn’t _want_ to leave me here, he just wants to save the world. He tries to stop the betrayal from showing because… Cass is doing exactly as he’s asked. Dropping dead weight for the greater good.

But Cass shoves the flower into Dean’s coat jacket and hefts him up like a baby. One second later, Dean is soaring through the air, his fear of heights at full strength as he crashes into the ground. Only, the sand doesn’t pitch up into his face and the lights are suddenly too bright.

The bunker.

A fizzling sound has himself pushing onto his elbows. He pants, reaching one hand forward. He has to go back. For Cass. The portal is closing. He drags himself forward by his elbows, reaching the edge of the portal just as it crackles for the last time.

…

The portal flickers out and Castiel darts towards the tree line. The Leviathan are raining down faster and faster. Each hit sounding closer.

Crashing through the underbrush, Castiel comes to rest behind a rock, trying to still his breaths. He’s thrown Dean away once more… and quite literally this time. But Dean made it through and Castiel has to find his way back to him… to show Dean that he can do more than just leave.

A twig snaps to his left.

He lets out a low whistle, “Good throw. I never knew Heaven had line-backers.”

“Benny.” This time, Castiel is happy to see him.

“Come on hot wings.” He waves a hand, “Guess it’s my job to reunite you and dear old Dean.”


End file.
